The "W" cone has been a well known leading Focal innovation, yet we have managed to improve it further.The manufacturing of composite sandwich cones has been a Focal tradition for nearly 20 years now. It kept on going over generations of improvements, the latest and most impressive being the "W" composite structure used on the Utopia range. This leading innovation has had some considerable impact in sound quality car audio competition where it helped establish Focal as the most highly respected contender.

At the core of the "W" sandwich is a foam structure whose mechanical properties are exceptional, and a well guarded secret. Both sides of that core are laminated with a thin sheet of glass fabric. The bonding of the outer layers to the core is obtained by full polymerization. This is what gives the "W" membrane all its integrity and it incredible stiffness: about 20 times that of other competitive membranes at equal mass, while still offering unmatched acoustical damping.

The unique concept and manufacturing of our Focal cones is where Focal superior sound comes from. Where most other manufacturers place various importance respectively to damping, weight and stiffness, the essential and determining characteristics of any cone or membrane, Focal managed to pay equal and undivided attention to all three at the same time, making for a truly superior technology, immediately transcribed into truly superior and more refined sound.

At the occasion of creating the cones for the drive units of the new Utopia Be line of products, Focal took the "W" cone one step above. To the point of becoming an art, in many ways comparable to the fine art of wine making. By varying the thickness and the density of the foam core, by adding or removing some layers of glass fabric on the each side of the core, we have succeeded in controlling step by step these 3 factors independently of each other, in order to fully master the final characteristics of the resulting cone. We will for instance privilege stiffness for a subwoofer cone, while we will privilege acoustical damping and light weight for a midrange cone.

Focal's cone technology allows a unique flexibility in the design and in the making of each cone in order to obtain for each speaker a frequency response as linear as possible, a well controlled and natural sounding cut off and an harmonious directivity pattern. As a direct result it is now not necessary to include any kind of correction in the crossover and it will allow the full exploitation of the revolutionary Crossblock concept.